4th Annual Cruisin' Back to Culver City

Hot rodding is reminiscing, returning in our imaginations to some time and place in our world where cool cars were central. Could be a rural two-lane road or the main street of town, an after-hours parking lot or the local track. For George Barris, its downtown Culver City. This city of 40,000 people is bordered on all sides by Los Angeles, and, when Barris was a slightly younger hot rodder, was the center of a bunch of activity. The industrial outskirts of town was home to numerous speed shops and manufacturers, the low-traffic backroads were long and straight and just right for racing, and the Picadilly Drive-In was watering hole for George and all his buddies. The industrial outskirts, low-traffic backroads, and the Picadilly have disappeared, but, every May, George brings it all back with the Cruisin' Back to Culver City car show. This was the fourth year for the event, which pulls in hot rods, customs, classic trucks, musclecars, and lowriders from all over Southern California, not to mention big-time and small-time vendors. Spectators range from folks from the neighborhood wondering where the rockabilly music is coming from, to the like of Gene Winfield and Bill Hines-not to mention me with my camera, trying to photograph the action to show it to you guys, and trying to imagine what this place was like when Barris and his friends were hanging out here.